Friends That Go Bump in the Night
by Ardikus
Summary: Sometimes, all that's needed to pull you from the dark is a helping hand. No matter how literal it may be.
1. Chapter 1

Yang shook as her mind struggled to escape into consciousness. She was stuck somewhere between awake and asleep, torn between the desperate need to wake herself and her own morbid curiosity gripping her and holding her within her nightmares.

She'd been hoping that getting to Ruby might help ease some of her night terrors, having her sister nearby again and being able to remind herself of that.

As if anything could go so easily. Her issues hadn't lessened at all since her and Weiss had gotten to the house in Mistral. The opposite of what she had hoped for seemed to be the result, as now her sleep was plagued by images of her sister taking her place in front of Adam's blade, or Weiss, or even Blake, had she not gotten there when she did. It was like a curse. She'd finally reunited with people she cared about, people she loved, only for her mind to drag them into her personal torture.

Faintly, Yang thought she heard noise, something outside of her mind. If she were lucky, then whatever it was might be enough to finally rouse her so that she could find some relief.

There was a quiet moment, before Yang found herself assailed by more gruesome images and shivered in fear. Whatever had caused the first noise piped up again after this. She thought she could hear someone saying her name, but she couldn't place it.

Suddenly, there was a light pressure on her arm. The real one, and Yang's mind went blank for a blissful moment at the touch before the nightmares sought to return, sending goosebumps crawling across her body as her shivering increased.

Yang whimpered in response to this, wishing that whatever it was that had pushed away her dark dreams would come back.

As if in answer, she felt her body being pulled up, and suddenly there were two warm arms wrapping around her, quieting her rattled mind and pulling her closer to the surface.

She could hear more whispering, recognizing her name. She managed to pick out some of the other words, piecing together some sort of attempt at reassuring her. It did the trick, as her mind finally pulled itself awake. Her body stiffened as she came to fully, before letting all the tension go and sagging against whoever was holding her up. Her face was buried in their chest a little bit awkwardly, considering they'd probably pulled her up into this embrace hastily.

Her rescuer had stopped speaking now that she'd been roused, and just continued to hold her, stroking her back gently until she stopped shivering. It didn't take very long for this to lull Yang back to sleep, no matter how hard she tried to stay awake, to avoid her nightmares.

When Yang next came to, she was extremely surprised to realize that she'd been completely left alone in her sleep, waking feeling almost rested, rather than exhausted by her usual host on terrors each time she closed her eyes. She rolled over slowly, burying her face in the pillows as faint light shined through the windows.

Giving up, she slowly cracked one eye open, gazing out the window at what looked like the very beginning of sunrise, informing her that there was still some sleep left to be had before she needed to get up, if she could manage it. As her blurry vision focussed, she realized that she was peeking out at the windows from behind a shoulder.

A shoulder which was not one of hers.

Her eyes shot open as she reeled back in surprise, arm pulling itself free to support her sitting up. She only realized after that the fact that her arm had been snaked firmly around the waist of the other person in her bed, holding them nearby.

Her brain, now fully awake, began to recall how bad her dreams had been in the night, and how somebody had shown up and calmed her down, helped her get back to sleep. These thoughts went by quickly as her eyes travelled from wide shoulders, up the back of the neck and to the mop of blond hair on the person in bed with her, before they shifted to the face of a Jaune Arc who was slowly starting to wake up, obviously woken by her sudden movement.

His eyes opened slowly as her rolled on to his back, and he blinked a number of times before their gazes met.

He didn't seem half as panicked as Yang would have expected. He looked more embarrassed than anything else, a faint pink dusting on his cheeks as he looked up at her.

"You're in my bed?"

He reached up with one arm, scratching the top of his head nervously.

"I mean," he began, quietly, "You kind of gave me no choice?"

Yang failed to hide her surprise, "Yea?" she asked back, prompting him to explain. He did so after a moment, shifting to rest on one elbow as he sat up slightly.

"I thought you'd fallen back asleep, but when I went to get up and leave, you sorta just, grabbed me and dragged me in here. I tried to get free, but you didn't exactly have a light grip, and every time I started to get loose you started shivering and stuff again and I didn't want to leave you like that so I kinda, went with it?"

She stared at him, starting to see maybe just a bit of what Ruby saw in him as a friend, and what Pyrrha must have seen in him. If it had been Ruby to come in during the night after hearing her having a nightmare, that made sense, she was Yang's sister, of course she'd try to comfort Yang, the same as Yang would do for Ruby, but Jaune? They barely even spoke at Beacon, even when their teams were together all the time. He had no real reason to bother trying to get her out of her nightmares, let alone go so far out of his way to make sure she didn't have to deal with them, especially considering it could have come at the cost of his own sleep.

If she'd heard of Jaune doing something like this back at Beacon, she'd have probably thought it was creepy, sleeping next to someone you didn't know too well to stop their nightmares just because you don't want them to suffer, but Yang was not the same person she'd been then, and she wasn't so quick to judge or criticize.

"Why?" she asked finally, curiosity burning its way past any other emotions.

Jaune just shrugged, "We're friends, and you don't deserve to suffer, none of us do. So we gotta look out for one another, even when we aren't on the battlefield."

"Besides," he added on, "What kind of person would I be if I just ignored somebody else in pain? That'd just make me no better than the people we're fighting."

Yang swallowed back any instinctive responses before they could be voiced, preferring to enjoy the silence between them while it lasted. She closed her eyes after a few moments, letting out a soft sigh. This seemed to give Jaune the wrong idea, as she heard him starting to shuffle around. She opened an eye to look down and see what he was doing. He paused when he saw her looking at him, starting to speak.

"I'll leave now, I mean, this is probably really uncomfortable for you and I probably shouldn't be here anyways, or your uncle might kill me or Ruby might kill me even though I just slept here but you're fine now so it – "

She grabbed his wrist as he made to shift off the bed, holding him where he was. When he looked back over his shoulder at her, she offered a faint smile. "Stay, it's fine."

His eyes widened before he looked down, scratching his head again as she released his arm. "Are you sure? I mean it's not like my room is far away."

She rolled her eyes, starting to grin, "We're gonna have to get up in a few hours anyways, no point in moving now. Your bed will be all cold." She said, "Besides, if you leave, who's going to be my knight in shining armour, fending off all the big bad things while I sleep?"

The teasing managed to put a smile on his face, and he relented, laying back down on the bed, pulling the covers back up. Yang did the same, shifting to face him across the pillows.

She studied his face for a moment before a thought came to her, "Jaune?" she asked. His head perked up, eyes coming to meet hers to show she had his attention.

She pursed her lips before asking, "Why were you up so late, anyways? We all need all the sleep we can get."

A frown crossed his face, marring his expression for a few seconds before it slipped away into a half smile.

"You're not the only one who can't sleep at night, Yang." He told her softly.

On impulse, Yang reached out with her arm, pulling Jaune closer. He startled at her actions, but quickly opted to once again go with it, so long as it helped his friend. Slowly, he let one arm go around her, brushing up against her own arm. He used his other hand to pull the blankets up over them before settling in, risking a glance down at the top of Yang's head.

Things were quiet for a few minutes, long enough that Jaune wondered if Yang had fallen back asleep. Before he could decide, she shifted in his arms slightly.

"Jaune?" she asked, voice quiet. He hummed to indicate he was listening, and felt her hand clench into a fist behind his back before releasing again, fingers splaying out over his spine.

"Thank you." She granted, giving a light squeeze. He smiled, returning the gesture, "No problem, Yang."

"And if you're ever having trouble sleeping again, feel free to come hang out with me, even if I'm not."

Jaune smiled at the bold offer, knowing that if his fellow blonde was saying that, she meant it.

And when they woke up again a few hours later, no words were needed as they got up, and shared a long hug at the door before Jaune went back to his room for clothes, and they both prepared to go about their day, now knowing that their nights wouldn't necessarily be as dark as they had been, anymore.

After all, what were friends for?


	2. Chapter 2

Jaune was not as amused as Yang seemed to think he should be.

He'd been in the middle of a rare, blissful sleep. Too tired after training to even have any dreams, good or bad. He'd up and passed out right on the couch, uncaring of the fact that he was, of course, sleeping in the massive open part of their house, where anyone could see and mess with him, and even worse he was right in front of the door for anyone to see if they had a visitor.

Of course, with the people currently living in said house, Jaune should have known better than to hope that he'd be uninterrupted. If there was someone to mess with, they could and would be messed with, be it by Yang, Nora, Ruby, or surprisingly Weiss.

It wasn't the latter three that were giving him grief right now though. Yang had walked in, spotted him sleeping, lying peacefully on his back and catching some much needed rest. Rest she of all people knew he didn't get much of, and promptly decided to fall down and lie on him.

"Why?" he croaked, trying to suck air back into his lungs. Yang stared at him with a wide, cheeky grin on her face. She pretended to think for a second before replying.

"I wanted to lie on the couch." He gaped at her, before growling. "You know, there's another couch right over there.

Her grin morphed into a delinquent smirk. "This one looked much comfier." She confessed, as if that excused her assaulting his poor tired self.

"Besides, maybe I wanted to spend some time with my fellow blonde." His head slumped back in annoyance, making Yang start to giggle. He sighed, at least one of them was having a good time.

"Whatever, I want to sleep. Think you can let me do that?"

"Aw yea, of course." Yang replied nonchalantly, as if she hadn't moments ago not been able to resist stopping him from sleeping by jumping on him. He rolled his eyes before she went on, "I have sleep to catch up on too, y'know?" she countered, "I just had something I wanted to talk to you about, and well, come on, you fell asleep out here, how's a girl supposed to resist?"

"Oh, I don't know, by not doing it?" he snarked back, causing more giggling.

It was kind of odd, hearing Yang giggle. He was pretty sure that he'd not once heard her do it at Beacon, she'd always been more of an outright laugher, even when she got here with Weiss, when they all had dinner together, it'd been her big booming laugh.

Her giggles were really quiet, by comparison. He wondered what was different that was bringing this out compared to all the other times where she'd laughed.

"Anyways, what was it you wanted to talk about?"

"Oh, right!" she shifted up suddenly, making him groan as her palms dug in under his ribs, making her shift her hands to somewhere less painful for him. "Sorry." She offered, grinning sheepishly as she glanced his way.

He rolled his eyes again, at least there'd be one thing she apologized for today.

"So uh," she said, before going quiet for a moment. "I just uh, wanted to know if you might feel like training together sometime?" He paused, looking up at her in surprise. That hadn't exactly what he'd been expecting to hear, if anything.

"I'm not sure I'd be much of a challenge for you, Yang." He admitted awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck with one hand.

She shrugged, "I'm too used to training with Ruby and Weiss doesn't really have an easy combat style to work with. We can just exercise together, too, if you want, I'm really just looking for a partner for stuff." There was a long pause before Yang realized how that probably sounded, and started to backtrack. "Not that I'm trying to replace- I mean," she stopped herself, sighing.

"I just, used to do all this stuff with Blake, and she left. Now I'm kind of just left with nobody to buddy up with. I'm not trying to intrude, or anything, it's just, ugh." She dropped her head down, causing Jaune to 'oomph' at the impact. "I'd just rather not be left on my own." She mumbled, raising her head back up slightly, her hair falling over the side of the couch beside them.

"It's alright to miss her, you know." He said suddenly. Yang's eyes met his, brows furrowed. "I get that you're mad at Blake for leaving, but that doesn't mean you can't miss her too." He said, shrugging, "Hasn't stopped me."

Her eyes widened in surprise, before she whispered, "You were mad at Pyrrha?" he flinched and looked down, ashamed, "Of course I am. She ran off to die for no reason." He lamented, "She left me, same as Blake left you, knowing that she didn't stand a chance of winning. I was devastated that she died, but at the same time, I was furious at her for throwing her life away like it meant nothing to her, or to any of us." His whispers grew more heated, gaining more bite as Jaune went on. Yang watched in morbid surprise, unsure of what to think of this side of the goofy blond.

"At least with Blake, there's a chance for her to realize her mistakes and come back. I don't have that, Yang."

She sighed, staying quiet as she mulled over the words. If she'd learned anything in the past year, it was the value of silence, and thinking things through before acting. Yang did not intend to put herself through the consequences of leaping before thinking again. Once had been too many times.

"Neither one should have run, whatever the reasons." She said, after a long silence. Jaune's forehead nudged her cheek as he nodded, reminding her of the position they were in, and what sort of view he probably had of her at this angle. When she looked down though, she found that his eyes were on her face, not any lower, and she reminded herself that this was Jaune. He wouldn't sneak a peek unless she wanted him to. Probably not even if she wanted him to, a part of her mind groused. She beat it back and focussed on his reply.

" – They shouldn't have, but they did, and now all we can do is go from there." He offered a smile that Yang returned, before she reached over to pat him on the head, sitting upright as she did so, resting on his stomach comfortably. Well, comfortably for her, at least.

"I know, even if sucks." She said, "Thanks Jaune." Her smile was as genuine as her words, for only a moment before her hands came down to whack his chest playfully, "So, want to come train with me or not?" the smile had shifted into a hopeful grin, head tilting sideways as she awaited his answer.

Jaune directed a flat look her way, "I was enjoying a nap before you got here, you know." He said, gesturing at the couch they were laying on. He watched as her grin faltered for a moment, and let out a deep breath. "Yang, I'm not saying no. We can do stuff later, I'm just exhausted right now. Hence the whole…" he gestured vaguely, but Yang nodded in acceptance anyways.

"Right, yea." She let out, seemingly unsure of what course to take from there. Within a few seconds it looked like she'd made a decision, and a smirk overtook her face before she shifted and then let herself fall over in a heap, landing back on top of Jaune's chest and making him gasp for air a third time.

"Why!" he cried dramatically, even as he felt her wrapping her arms around him and getting comfortable.

"Might as well get some sleep too, I'll need all my energy if I'm gonna keep up with your stamina!" she teased, winking when she caught his eye. Jaune let out a long groan, slamming his head down on the couch.

His annoyance couldn't hold up for long, though, as his fatigue started to seep back into the forefront, pulling his eyes closed as Yang rested her head just below his chin. One of his arms was stuck between their stomachs, thankfully not touching anything it shouldn't, and he had moved the other up to rest his face against. He wondered, before he fell asleep, if Yang was even tired. He hoped she was, because it was really awkward to imagine she was just going to lie there while he slept, wide awake.

His worries were for nothing, as Yang's breathing had slowed into soft breaths as she fell asleep, even before he had fully left consciousness.

Later, when he came to again, he was almost sad to realize he had woken up, and curled up tighter to stay cozy and warm, unwilling to give up on some of the best sleep he'd gotten in months. That action was abandoned when he started to wonder what exactly he had just curled tighter around.

His mind almost dove straight into panic mode, but Jaune opened his eyes and had his view filled with a mass of golden hair, and he let out a sigh, relaxing. After all, they'd done as much before, the one time, and she'd been the one who decided to sleep on top of him on a couch. It wasn't his fault if he'd managed to shift her between himself and the back of the couch in his sleep.

He almost questioned where the blanket that covered the two of them had come from, before deciding he really didn't want to ask questions like that, since there were literally no good answers. Best case scenario was what, Ren? He really hoped it had been Ren.

So, ignoring his mind's natural fear of doing anything that might get him killed, Jaune let himself pull Yang's back a little closer to him and closed his eyes, enjoying every little bit of peace he could get.

Unbeknownst to Jaune, one of their housemates watched said action from one of the connecting hallways to the main room.

She let herself admit, silently of course, that Jaune had definitely grown up since Beacon, like the rest of them. While her first thought had been to try and use her discovery of the two on the couch as teasing material, when she saw the small smile Yang wore in her sleep, knowing that her teammate suffered from nightmares and regularly looked exhausted because she'd just stayed up through most of the night rather than face them, she decided to just leave things be. Adding the blanket had just been an afterthought. If this was how Yang could get some sleep, and being honest, probably how Jaune could get some sleep as well, then she was more than happy to let them help each other, and do her part as well.

She'd promised she'd be there for Yang, after all, and she knew that promise went to all her friends. Even the dunce.


	3. Chapter 3

"Ow! Ouch! Gods damnit Yang!"

In response to his shouts, Jaune's sparring partner merely grinning impishly at him before ducking in and landing a few more hits as he scrambled to recover his shield.

"Gotta keep you on your toes, Jauney!" she teased, firing off a pair of shots at his feet to emphasize the statement.

He jumped back, pulling his shield back onto his off arm and growling. Annoyingly enough, this was probably the best he'd done so far in their spars.

Of course, Jaune hadn't been doing too badly until she'd knocked away his shield, from there she'd resorted to simply punching him repeatedly until he managed to get away, not even bothering to accompany the hits with gunfire.

Such seemed to be Yang's method of training him. He should have suspected that it would involve a lot of teasing, and hitting him until he learned something from it. Jaune had kind of been holding out for her to secretly be some sort of master teacher, he remembered that her and Ruby's dad was a teacher, and apparently Qrow had been one too. It hadn't been a far-fetched idea, or so he thought.

His eyes widened as he watched Yang's fist rocket towards his face, pulling him out of his distracting thoughts. He frantically ducked and swung his sword, catching Yang in the midsection. She took the hit in stride and fired a shot at him, which he raised his shield to deflect before shifting to the side to avoid her next attack. However, he wasn't quick enough to dodge the second strike, and tumbled to the ground, sword flying out of his grasp.

He lay there for a few breaths before sitting up, coming almost face to face with a grinning Yang, crouched in front of him.

"Not bad, Jaune-o" she praised, giving him a friendly slap on the shoulder. He jostled slightly at the contact, not really having expected it.

He raised an eyebrow at her, "I got disarmed twice." He deadpanned, gesturing to his sword, which was lying a few feet away. Yang, ever optimistic, just shrugged it off, "You recovered the first time and managed to land a hit on me afterwards when I came at you full speed. Besides," she said, her voice lifting on the last word as she stretched out her right arm, the metal gleaming in the sun, "Getting disarmed is no excuse to stop fighting, or so I hear." She grinned at him before lowering the arm and offering it to him, pulling him up as she stood herself once he took it.

"Seriously?" he asked, rolling his eyes at her quip. She gave him a shameless grin in response.

"So, what did we learn this time?" she asked him, like she did every time they finished a spar, no matter how it went. It was a drastically different style from how Pyrrha had taught him, with her, she'd let him know what he'd done right and wrong in each spar and how to improve. With Yang, she expected him to figure out through practice what worked and didn't, and learn to adapt. If he'd had her as his trainer when he first got to Beacon, he'd probably have died with that training style, but Pyrrha had taught him the basics and helped with a lot of his biggest weaknesses, so he could actually figure out where he made mistakes on his own now.

"Keep a much better grip on my weapons." He groused, shooting her a glare. Yang made a disapproving sound, crossing her arms. Jaune sighed and stood up straighter.

"Don't get distracted in a fight. Always be prepared for the chance your opponent isn't going to be slowed down by a hit, so you have to keep moving if they're quicker than you."

Now she let out a smile, "Good boy." She teased, "Even if you catch up to all of us, we're bound to get into fights with people stronger than we are, considering what's at stake here. You aren't as fast as your enemies, or as strong, but you're not stupid." She evaluated, "You have a mind for strategy, we all know that, its how you did so well as a leader. You're observant too, those are your advantages. You'll never overpower me, or be faster than Ruby, but you can probably outsmart us."

He took in the advice, knowing it was true. After all, he'd heard it from more than one place before. Pyrrha had said it, Ren had said it, Ozpin had even said it. Heck, this wasn't even the first time Yang was saying it.

So, how could he beat Yang then, if not with strength and skill? His eyes went to her hair for a moment before dismissing that idea. It was, if anything, more likely to get him killed than help him beat her.

Wait, there was that one thing, he remembered, something he'd found out by accident just before they'd both gotten up from their nap on the couch. He'd need a bit of luck to pull that off, but it could work.

She certainly wouldn't see it coming, that was for sure.

"Ready to go again, or should I find a new punching bag?" he heard Yang call to him. He reached down and grabbed his sword, letting his shield re-deploy into its full size. Yang nodded her head to show she knew he was accepting, but before she moved into a ready position, he grinned suddenly and spoke.

"So," he said, trying to pull off some false bravado, "How about a bet?" Her eyebrows went up in surprise, then morphed more towards a curious lift.

"Oh? Is that a smart move, Jauney? I mean, you haven't beaten me once yet."

He shrugged like that didn't mean anything, which, considering the change of tactics he was about to throw at her, it didn't. "This match, whoever wins, gets to do whatever they want to the other's hair, no restrictions." Yang's eyes narrowed at the threat implied by the chance of him winning. He knew he had her right then, she'd take it as some sort of personal challenge, and with the others now watching them talk instead of training, it'd probably look bad if she said no, especially when she seemed sure to win the spar. She couldn't pass up the chance to mess with Jaune's hair for fun, either, he was sure.

"No restrictions?" she asked, sounding maybe a small bit suspicious.

"Yep," Jaune answered, grinning, "Dye it, style it, braid it, cut it." She winced at the last one and Jaune decided to throw out his last one, "Shave it." She winced again and Jaune almost laughed at his she cringed away from even the idea of her hair being harmed, "Imagine how much easier it would be to fight without hair getting in the way!" her gaze shot to meet his, eyes flashing red for a moment beyond her control.

"Deal" she ground out, glaring at him. He took a step back apprehensively. As much as getting her a bit off balance with this was the plan, Jaune didn't exactly relish the idea of provoking Yang into anger right before fighting her.

Briefly, before their spar began, Jaune wondered if anyone watching was concerned for his wellbeing right now. He wouldn't put it past them to think Yang was about to destroy him for so stupidly joking about cutting her hair. To be fair, Jaune was pretty concerned for his health at the moment as well, so he couldn't really blame anyone else for it.

Without warning, Yang shot into action. She sprinted at him, launching a hard punch towards his gut as she closed in. He jumped aside from the blow and raised his shield in case she managed to adjust. This proved to be the right decision, as it wasn't long before he felt the impact of a redirected fist crash across his shield at an angle, sliding off harmlessly. Yang fired her gauntlet at him though, and that managed to push him back a step.

Jaune swung low with his sword in return, forcing Yang to pick between jumping over the attack or back from it. She smartly went back, firing off a pair of shots at him before closing in again. Jaune managed to dodge one shot, the other sneaking past the bottom of his shield and striking him in the hip, before Yang came in and unleashed a flurry of punches on his shield, trying to break his guard.

Doing his best to hold on, Jaune let himself concede ground, pulling back to lessen how jarring each hit was. A few blows managed to get past him, usually when Yang would switch her aim and fire a shot around the shield instead of blasting it purposefully. Whenever she did so Jaune would try to lash out at the arm firing at him to force her focus back to his shield.

Feeling his shield arm numbing from the beating he was taking there, Jaune decided to put his trick to the test. He reached in as discreetly as he could in the situation, and ripped the straps of his shield off his arm, Yang's next set of punches sent his best defense soaring away, but Jaune had known that would happen and gotten out of its path. Yang reeled back in surprise at the turn of events, and reacted too slow as Jaune got behind her and got his arms around her. For a second, she thought he was going to try and pin her, thinking it was a terrible attempt considering he hadn't grabbed her arms, but as his hands made contact she realized exactly what he was going for and her eyes widened in shock.

This was quickly followed by involuntary laughter, as Jaune had decided to take advantage of the fact that, unbeknownst to anyone else there, save Ruby and perhaps Qrow, Yang had extremely ticklish armpits. Something Jaune had found out by accident.

The rest of the group watched in surprise as Jaune furiously tickled his opponent, giving her no chances to catch her breath as she laughed and pleaded for him to stop.

Jaune laughed as he gave Yang no mercy, calling out to her, "All you have to do is tell me you lost the match, Yang."

"Never!" she shouted breathlessly, trying to squirm out of his grasp. He arms waved wildly trying to whack him away, but she had no presence of mind to try and shoot him, even if she could have managed to get an arm aiming at him.

"I could tickle your sides, too, or maybe your feet? I wonder if you're ticklish there too?" he teased, using his legs to keep hers stuck together so she wouldn't think to kick him.

"This, is not fair!" she huffed, managing to turn her head to try and glare at him. He just tickled harder, making her angry face disappear as she burst into breathless giggles again. "You're the one who told me to outsmart my opponents." He joked. This time she couldn't stop herself from giggling harder at his words. "Not what I had in mind." She managed, "Fine, I give."

As soon as she said it, Jaune let go. Yang fell down as he did, her legs shaking as she recovered from his torment.

Once she had her breath back, Yang turned her head and glared up at him, contrasted by the wide grin on her face. "You're a real jerk, you know that Jaune?" He chuckled and stuck his tongue out at her before replying.

"I had a good teacher." He quipped, offering a hand to her as she'd done for him their last match. Around them, he could hear their friends still laughing at his display of creative combat.

Yang was still grinning as well as she took his hand and let him pull her back to her feet. She still looked a little unsteady, so Jaune went to help hold her up, which, coincidentally, would have needed him to grip under her shoulder. She raised a hand up, one finger waggling at him side to side, "Nuh uh pal, I'm not trusting you anywhere near my armpits anymore."

He smirked down at her, "How about with your hair?" he reminded her, making her smile disappear in an instant as she remembered the bet they'd made.

"You." she growled, turning her eyes on him. His smirk grew wider, "Deal's a deal. Does tonight after dinner sound good to you?" he watched, maybe with too much enjoyment, as her face drained of colour, before he spun around, picking up his shield as he walked back to the house.

* * *

With an ever-rising sense of dread, Yang opened the door to her room, letting Jaune walk in, a bag in his hand. His annoying smirk was still in place on his annoying face as he set the bag down and looked around as she closed the door behind him.

"So, where we doing this?" he asked. She pointed to the stool she'd set up in front of a bureau with a large mirror attached. She'd set up a towel on the floor to catch her hair, which was probably a better indicator of how worried she was than anything else.

He nodded, pulling out a big pair of scissors from his bag for effect. Yang winced as she saw it, and quietly went to sit on the stool.

Jaune came up behind her, smiling at her through the mirror. "Close your eyes? It'll all be better as a surprise." He suggested, and Yang almost rolled her eyes, because she was already planning on doing that.

Not because she wanted it to be a surprise, but because she didn't want to watch her hair get cut away.

Once her eyes we closed, she heard Jaune shuffle away for a moment, accompanied by an idle snip of the scissors. She winced almost involuntarily, but didn't feel any change in her hair.

Of course, she had so much hair she probably wouldn't feel any of it getting cut off at first unless he was being rough.

She heard him shuffling through his bag, and then he was stepping back towards her, and putting his hands through her hair.

Thankfully, he was gentle, running his hands through her locks with grace he lacked in combat. She wondered for a moment if he did stuff like this for his sisters at any point, before wincing again as the sound of scissors rang through her ears.

The sound continued, clipping every so often as Jaune's hands moved. Yang couldn't figure out what, but something was off. She knew it might be hard to feel the hair coming off at first, even with how sensitive she was to changes in it normally, but she should have felt something, right? She didn't even feel any loose hair landing down on her or anything.

It went on like this for at least ten minutes, Yang growing more and more suspicious as time went on. Whatever the heck Jaune was doing, he was either good enough to keep her from knowing or he was just messing with her completely.

"What are you up to?" she asked aloud, keeping her eyes shut. It was a few seconds before she felt Jaune's hands leave her hair, and he responded, "About to do the finishing touches, don't you worry." He said, patting her shoulder.

Now she wasn't sure whether to be worried or not. Did he only cut out parts of her hair, to make it look terrible? Was he doing something else she just couldn't feel? She knew her hair was still there, he hadn't just gone and chopped it off.

At least there were small mercies, as she no longer heard the clipping of scissors. Instead, she felt Jaune's hands start to gather her hair together, and start to bring it up. She wondered if he was planning on putting it in some sort of silly style or something, and that was the big joke.

It was only a couple minutes before his hands stopped moving, but they kept on her hair, applying enough pressure that she couldn't really figure out exactly what he'd put her hair into.

"Alright, eyes open."

She did as asked, and gasped when she saw her hair.

She could tell right away that none of it was even gone, as Jaune let his hands drop away to his sides. Her hands came up to stroke through it carefully as she examined it.

"How, why?" she asked, she asked, eyes wide as she locked gazed with Jaune through the mirror.

He'd taken nothing from her hair, and instead had pulled it up into pigtails, which he'd let fall down over the front of her shoulders once her eyes had opened. It was identical to how she'd worn her hair as a little girl, right down to the two thin orange ribbons he'd used to tie her hair, looped into pretty bows. A tiny smile came over her unbidden at the sight.

Jaune shrugged, his face a tinge red from her reaction as she scratched the back of his head, "I didn't want to actually mess with your hair, you love it so much I'd have felt horrible forever if I did. So, I asked Ruby for any ideas of what you might like, and this was the only thing she would give me." He smiled wryly at her, "She said if I didn't use this then she would disown me forever, so I figured I had no choice."

Yang wished her sister was in the room so that she could hug her to death at that moment.

"This is how I always had my hair when I was little." She explained, "Exactly like this." He nodded in understanding, but she knew he was confused why that made her so emotional, her mind trailed off to the memory, she'd run into the house crying because her hair always got dirty when she went out to play, hanging loose down her back. She could remember how Summer had just given her that tiny smile that made everything alright before taking her hand and pulling her to the bathroom. She'd helped Yang wash her hair out, smoothed it out, combing her fingers gently as she talked about how much she loved Yang's hair, when Yang had gotten upset enough to say she wanted to cut it, and then, without a word, Summer had pulled her hair together and made it into two pigtails, before grinning at Yang and asking if she could manage to keep her head out of the mud now.

"Summer was the one who first put my hair up like this for me." She then explained to him, coming back to the present. "I wore it like this for years after she'd died as a way of remembering her, and even now it's why I keep my hair so long, because she loved it and said it made me look beautiful."

To her surprise, Jaune let out a chuckle. She turned around on her seat to raise an eyebrow at him.

"I don't think she meant that you wouldn't look beautiful without it, Yang." He said, smiling at her, "I mean, I know I joked about cutting or shaving your hair before, but you'd be beautiful even if I actually had done that."

Without warning, Yang reached up, pulling herself off the stool to grip Jaune in a massive hug. Her arms wrapped around him tightly, and he was surprised to feel something wetting his shirt when Yang buried her face in his shoulder.

"Thank you, Jaune." She mumbled, gripping a little tighter as she spoke. Gratified to see how important what he'd done was to her, even if he'd had no idea when he first did it besides the fact Ruby said she'd like it, Jaune returned the hug with a big smile, letting one hand toy with one of her newly made pigtails before he planted a gentle kiss on the top of her head. "Anytime Yang."

For the rest of the week, Yang wore her hair in pigtails, moving about with an extra spring in her step, happier than she'd ever seemed since reaching Mistral. Nobody said a word to Jaune about it, despite them all knowing that'd been how he used his bet. The closest to anyone acknowledging it was Weiss thanking him for revealing to her that Yang was ticklish, as it'd be helpful the next time she needed to deal with her rowdy teammate.


	4. Chapter 4

Rolling over on to her back, Yang blew out a heavy breath of exasperation. She'd gone at least three days without any nightmares, and had been hoping to continue her hot streak, but no, she thought, glancing over at her clock, and the glowing red _3:48AM_ staring back at her, it just had to go wrong.

Just like everything else she did lately, it seemed.

Well, almost everything.

On that note, she shifted, turning her head to the side as one arm reached out and patted at the empty sheets on the other side of the bed. Seemed like Jaune hadn't been able to stay asleep either tonight.

But as she thought for a moment, Yang realised the sheets weren't even the slightest bit warm. It was as if he'd not been there at all. Had he even tried to sleep? Or had he just waited for her to conk out before slipping off to wherever?

It was hard to tell. Her budding connection with Jaune was about the only wholly good thing Yang had to rely on of late, and that was a daunting thought considering just how messed up the both of them were, especially Jaune. She didn't know what was going through his head half the time, but he'd taken Pyrrha's death a lot harder than Yang herself had taken the loss of her arm.

Yea, she'd laid around at home all depressed for a long time before even trying to get back out there, while he'd been on board with Ruby to go to Haven right away, but Yang could tell, he wasn't handling it any better than her. She'd at least given herself the time to come to terms with her arm being gone, and what that would mean going forwards. Jaune seemed like he was just ignoring it all as best as he could, and eventually, it was going to come crashing down around him.

Well, she decided, sighing and rolling to a sitting position, best go find him. The least she could do for the dummy was drag him back to bed, otherwise he'd sit up all night on his own, brooding. Or worse, eating. Seriously, she never expected to find someone who was a worse stress eater than Ruby, but here he was.

Stupid Arc always doing things that she wasn't expecting.

Getting to her feet, Yang pulled her blanket off the bed as she shuffled across the room, letting the tail of it drag along the floor behind her. She wrapped herself up in it as she opened the door, shivering at the sudden rush of cool air on her skin, a stark reminder of how chilly it got in the mountains of Mistral at night.

She went to the main room first, just in case he'd moved there and fallen asleep on the couch for whatever reason. After that she checked the kitchen, but did not find him stuffing his face with ramen. That crossed out stress eating.

She was about to go check the study, to see if maybe he was reading, when she heard faint noise coming from the stairwell to the training gym. Her eyes rolled involuntarily before she frowned, turning and heading to the stairs, descending them as quietly as she could.

When she reached the bottom, she found her quarry. In the middle of the room, going through motions with his sword wearing nothing but his blue bunny rabbit pajama pants, was the one and only Jaune Arc.

A glance behind her let her know why the house was as cold as it was, since her fellow blond had the sliding doors to the cliff wide open.

Yang then realized she could hear something other than the whoosh of his sword strokes and his own grunts and pants, and her attention turned to his scroll.

Her brow furrowed sadly at the familiar voice coming through the speakers, and she knew immediately what he was listening to. Ruby had mentioned how she'd seen him doing this while they were on the road. She hadn't really thought about it enough to realize how terrible it would feel seeing it now, and as she caught a glimpse of Jaune's face, and the shining of a tear trail running down one of his cheeks, she decided enough was enough.

"What're you doing, doofus?" she asked softly, just loud enough for it to reach Jaune's ears.

He froze, turning on the spot until he was facing her with wide eyes, "Yang?" he asked, voice strained.

She pressed on, "Training in the middle of the night, huh?" she said, "Am I not pushing you hard enough when we work out together during the day, Jaune?" Best not to be direct about the video, or Pyrrha. She didn't want him to clam up on her.

Jaune, for his part, seemed blindsided by the path the conversation had turned. She'd obviously caught him off guard here, as intended.

"Uh, what?"

"Guess we're going to have to ramp up the intensity then, it's no good if I haven't exhausted you enough that you actually need to sleep at night. Besides, you're not getting enough out of this anyways, just swinging your sword around." She added, "Maybe we can get some of the others to spar with you, give you some real challenges if I haven't been up to task. Guess I'll need all the extra hands I can get to keep you in line."

Despite himself, she got Jaune to snort at the jest. He even began to crack a grin, before hiding it away and glancing over at his scroll, and the file still playing on it.

She took the opportunity to walk over, stopping right in front of him and looking him right in the eye when his attention came back to her.

"I know that it's hard Jaune, but this is just torturing yourself for nothing." She whispered, eyes pleading, "You know it, too. What's the point of staying awake to avoid the nightmares when you're subjecting yourself to worse when you're awake?"

"I-" he swallowed, voice thick, "It's all I've got of her, Yang."

She reached up to brush a thumb across his face, wiping away a stray tear, "Nope," she countered, offering him a somber smile, and poking him in the chest, where his heart was, "You have plenty of her right there, and nobody can take that away from you no matter what they do."

Jaune looked down at her silently, as if he had no idea what he could say to her in response to that.

Her gaze happened upon his chest, where she'd poked him, only to realize he was absolutely covered in goose bumps, rippling across his skin.

She almost slapped herself in the head. Of course, the idiot was probably freezing, he'd been out here for who knows how long in nothing but a shirt.

Yang quickly unwrapped herself from the blanket and slung it up around Jaune's shoulders, making him jump at the contact. "There, before you freeze yourself to death." She decided on teasing.

Now Jaune was the one looking down at her with concern, and her grin widened, how sweet.

"But you'll get cold." He protested, making to pull the blanket back off of himself. She reached out to grab the edges and tug them back around him, holding them there. "You need it more, Jaune." She said honestly, despite the chill on her own bare limbs now.

"Unless you're planning on sharing, of course." She prodded with a sideway smile, tilting her head innocently at him.

At long last, Jaune grinned back, and opened up his arms quickly before engulfing her in the blanket, dragging her against him in a big hug.

Yang let out a muffled 'oof' as she was pulled face first against him.

"There," she heard him say, his voice a bit less heavy than before, "Now we can both stay warm."

"Well maybe if your skin wasn't freezing cold, that'd be true." She grumbled, peeling her cheek away from his chest to send him a heatless glare.

"Hey," he protested with mock innocence, "You're the one who suggested I share. I'm just following your instructions."

Much to her agitation, Jaune was right. She hadn't thought about how cold he'd be to hug before running her mouth.

Then again, the little shit thought he had the upper hand on her, and she still had some payback to deliver for his stupid tricks to beat her in sparring. Even if he'd spared her hair, her pride demanded some retribution, even if nobody else would be awake to see it.

So, gathering her strength, Yang squatted down, eliciting a startled squeak from Jaune as his tired mind misinterpreted the motion entirely.

The squeak returned for an encore only seconds later as Yang wrapped her arms around his thighs and hauled him off his feet on to her shoulder like a giant sack.

She smirked, tugging the blanket up and out of the way so that she could see where she was going. Jaune, despite his protesting, helped by pulling it up around himself and away from Yang's face. If only because he didn't want the person carrying him to trip on the stairs and send them both crashing to the floor.

She walked over to the sliding door first, closing and locking it for the night. Then, she retrieved Jaune's scroll, stopping the recording that was still playing and slipping it into the waistband of her shorts, frowning at her lack of pockets.

Not that she normally needed pockets while sleeping, so she wasn't sure this could be called a design flaw.

Then, having gathered everything she came for, she headed up the staircase, bouncing Jaune on her shoulder with each step.

Y'know, just to make sure he didn't fall asleep before she got his sorry butt to bed.

Jaune was quiet as she walked them through the main room and down the hallway to their rooms. As they neared her door, she spoke up.

"Lien for your thoughts?"

She could hear the amusement in his tone when he replied, "Your butt shakes a lot when you walk."

Her cheeks coloured only the faintest bit, before she smirked and turned through her open doorway, 'accidentally' banging Jaune's head against the frame for his quip.

"Ow!" he hissed, trying to keep quiet, "What was that for?"

Her smirk widened, "Sorry, I thought I felt something in your pockets poke my shoulder, caught me off guard."

"I – Wha-" she swung the door to her room closed and then stomped over to her bed, dumping Jaune onto the mattress with a purposeful lack of grace.

He shook his head once the bed stopped shaking from the impact, looking up at her with red cheeks. Apparently he still couldn't take teasing as well as he was starting to dish it out.

"Scoot, you're on my side of the bed."

He gaped up at her, "You're the one who p-" she arched an eyebrow, cutting him off. He wisely pushed himself to the far side of the bed, letting her flop down beside him. Without hesitation she reached out to pull on the blanket, "And stop hogging, it's cold you know."

"Yo – Hey! I was the one in the cold, not you!" he claimed, tugging the blanket back in his own direction with a frown. She held on tight, not letting him take the blanket away from her completely. "Then maybe you shouldn't have been up so late when you were supposed to be sleeping." She scolded, staring back at him seriously.

He sighed, closing his eyes in resignation, "Yang…" he pleaded, and she could hear the unspoken pleading to leave it be.

Yang knew she'd done enough to make her point, so she did just that. "How about we just share it, like we were doing before?"

A tiny smile flitted across Jaune's face, "Just like before?" he asked quietly.

"Yep."

"Alrighty, Yang." He said, before reaching an arm out and pulling her across the bed to rest against him, letting her get another face full of his cold torso.

Yang huffed, "Should have seen that coming."

"Probably." Now it was Jaune's turn to smirk down at her.

It was quiet for a few minutes, Jaune had wrapped his arms loosely around her as they settled in, but neither could manage to get to sleep yet, something in their head's keeping them awake together.

Hesitantly, Yang reached up and pushed gently on Jaune's shoulder, rolling him onto his back, pulling herself up to lie on top of him. He froze as she came face to face with him, her eyes were a darker shade of lilac than normal, almost purple, but the moonlight from the window reflected off of them as she stared at him in silence. His own eyes were wide, like a deer in the headlights.

"Uh," he managed to get out, eyebrows raised at their new position.

Yang's stare bored into him, before she broke eye contact, her gaze darting to the side, unsure.

She took a deep breath, "Can I, " she began, "Just, I wanna try something, to see if I'm going crazy or not, but I don't want you to freak out."

"I freak out over everything, Yang. You'll have to be less picky."

A faint smile crossed her features, "Might be a little worse this time." She said, her eyes tracing across his face before resting on his. Grabbing hold of whatever confidence she had left, Yang leaned in.

Despite how obvious it should have been, Jaune, predictably, had not expected Yang to kiss him. His eyes opened even wider than before, staring up at her in shock. Yang herself had her eyes squeezed shut, lips barely even brushing against Jaune's for fear of his reaction.

After only a second or so, she pulled away, just a bare amount, eyes still shut tight and biting her lip, waiting for the panic, or the rejection, or anger. Maybe all three.

Yang was given none of those.

"Oh." She heard, barely audible the way he breathed the word out, his exhale brushing her cheek.

Without opening her eyes, Yang took that far less adverse reaction as assent and leaned in again, this time with less hesitation. She captured his lips, hands slipping up from beneath the blankets to trace fingers along his jaw, forgetting for a moment that one of those hands was cool and metallic as she indulged in one of the few people left that she trusted entirely.

Jaune, after only a split second's hesitation as she kissed him again, reciprocated, arms tightening around her waist beneath the blanket, hands coming to rest on the warm skin of her back.

Yang's left hand went around to the nape of Jaune's neck as they finally separated, her right hand retreating now that she'd remembered herself.

It didn't get far, however, before Jaune caught it, one of his hands leaving her back to twine his fingers with hers. Reminding her of how little he cared what her hand was made of.

He was surprised though, that when the silence was broken, it came in the form of a choked breath.

Opening his eyes to look up at Yang, he was just in time to watch her heave out a shaky sigh as she opened her own eyes, which shined even brighter than before in the faint moonlight.

"Please don't leave me on my own like that again." She whispered against his cheek, fingers gripping tightly to the hair on his neck as she shook against him.

It was a stark reminder for Jaune, so caught up in all his own problems that he'd almost forgotten the fact that this thing between them had started because both of them needed the other's support. Yang was so good at picking herself up and putting on a smile that he'd fooled himself into forgetting that she had her own problems, even if she was brave enough to put them aside to help him.

He tightened his grip on her prosthetic fingers, pressing a kiss to her temple as his free hand rose from her back to run his fingers through her thick mane, applying gentle pressure to the back of her head and neck with each pass.

"I've got you, Yang." He murmured in her ear, "I was being silly before, but I'm here. How about we take a nice long nap?" he heard her make a vaguely approving noise, shifting to dig her nose into the side of his neck, pressing gentle kisses there, "be th're t'mor'w?" she mumbled back, fatigue finally catching back up to her.

Jaune smiled at her drowsy affection, "Yea, I'll be here tomorrow. Don't worry."

"'Kay" he heard, before her breathing deepened, evening out as she finally fell back asleep.

He continued stroking through her hair with absent fingers, resting his head down on the pillow.

"What did I ever do to deserve this?" he whispered, wondering if he was speaking positively or negatively.


	5. Chapter 5

"Wait, you… want to spar against me, without me holding back?" Weiss asked, staring across the couch at Jaune incredulously, "Do you have a death wish or something?" He shifted awkwardly where he was sitting, folding his arms together.

"I'm not that bad anymore." He grumbled, after a few seconds. The heiress rolled her eyes, more amused now with Jaune than annoyed or frustrated like she always had been at Beacon.

"Nobody is saying you haven't improved, but you do realize fighting me without my holding back could just be me letting a twenty foot tall armoured knight use you as a plaything?" she questioned back wryly, a smug smirk on her face.

Jaune stared back, un-phased by the taunt. "Well," he replied, "If you want to be a coward and hide behind your semblance, I guess you could do that."

Weiss's jaw dropped in surprise, and a sharp bark of laughter sounded from the kitchen before being muffled, letting both Weiss and Jaune know that the other blonde in the house was listening in.

Before she could retort, Jaune dropped another jab, "I mean, it's understandable, after I beat Yang, that you might be scared to actually fight me."

Face turning red with indignation, Weiss jumped up from her seat, shoving a finger in Jaune's face challengingly. "You just watch, Arc, I'm going to give it to you so bad you won't be able to walk for a week!"

There was a long pause, with her finger hovering in front of his face, before Jaune replied in a low voice, "Well, I didn't know you were interested in me that way, Snow Angel."

If it was possible, Weiss's face reddened even further.

"Why you – you, ugh!" she recoiled from him, taking a full step away and glaring. In the background, Yang's booming laughter resounded, without any further attempt to muffle her amusement.

The heiress turned her glare in the direction of the kitchen before bringing it back to Jaune and rolling her eyes. "Stupid, insufferable, blonde haired idiots. The both of you. It's like you were made for one another."

With that, she turned on a heel and left the room, missing the surprised expressions on both blondes faces from her parting words.

"Well," Yang stated after a few moments, stepping into the main room, "If I didn't know any better I'd almost think she's warming up to you."

"Huh?" Jaune replied distractedly, before he blinked and turned to face Yang properly, "Oh, yea, I guess so."

Yang frowned at the sudden change in demeanor, "Are you alright?"

"Yea, I'm fine." He answered, sounding distracted. It did little to assure Yang, whose frown deepened.

She walked over and around the couch to sit where Weiss had been, before scooting across to close the distance and bump hips with Jaune. He jumped at the sudden contact.

"You sure about that?" she teased quietly, quirking an eyebrow when he looked up at her for a moment.

"Just…" he paused, looking away again, towards the front door, "A lot going on right now, I guess."

"Jaune." She deadpanned, before sighing and bringing her left hand up behind him to gently press her palm against his back. "If this is about going to meet Professor Lionheart tomorrow night, you really need to stop worrying. We'll all be together, and we have Qrow and technically Ozpin with us." Yang said, "Whatever happens, we have each other's backs, and that's all that matters. You can't let what-if's get to you, I mean, what if they never happen, y'know? If things do get weird, then we can deal with it then."

It was silent for nearly a minute after her rant, only the soft breathing of her and Jaune and a faint scratching noise as she began tracing her fingers up and down his spine over the fabric of his sweater.

Before the silence could wear out its comfort, Jaune let out a deep breath and offered a small smile in Yang's direction, not meeting her eyes. "Thanks, I'm just a little bit stressed out." He admitted, shrugging, "This isn't exactly where I expected to end up when I faked my way into Beacon a year ago."

At that guileless admission, Yang barked out a laugh, making Jaune jump again.

"Yea, I don't think any of us expected this when we applied, but you have it real bad there, huh Jauney?" she teased, hoping to get a rise out of her fellow blond, some sign of raised spirits.

Her hopes seemed to be answered as a smile slipped through his mask, accompanied by a wry laugh.

"Look," Yang said, bumping shoulders with him playfully, "What I said before stands, the best thing you can do is let it all go. We can't control what might happen, so don't worry about it until it actually does happen. You're just stressing yourself out for nothing right now, and that's never good."

Another wry laugh, this one sounding less humored, "You make it sound like that's an easy thing to do, Yang. I can't just shut off my brain and stop thinking about it like it's nothing. That isn't how this works."

A thought came to Yang's mind, and her face became dashed with pink as she glanced at their brushing knees.

She contemplated it for a few seconds, "Well you could always find something to distract you, so you can't think about it."

Jaune groaned, throwing himself against the back of the couch, his head hanging over the top of it as he stared up blankly at the ceiling, "I tried that, but nothing has worked. I can't focus on reading or watching anything. Talking only distracts me a bit, like it's still nagging at the back of my mind, and sparring makes it worse, because it's like I'm training for all those things that might come." He complained, "I got nothing left."

Yang rolled her eyes, more to herself than anything, at his denseness, "None of that is exactly what I had in mind, Jaune."

His head rocked forwards so he was facing her again, this time with a hard to read expression.

"I really don't think there's anything that's going to help, Yang. I worry about things a lot, I can't help it."

Without deigning to reply verbally, Yang just twisted on the couch and leaned towards Jaune, her metallic fingers reaching around the back of his head lightly, just brushing through the mess of hair there. Jaune barely had time to let out a sound of realization before he was drawn into a kiss.

Yang held back from pushing any more contact for the moment, letting out a light sigh when they came apart for a second before delving back in. She was more than content to ease the both of them into this, not only because she knew Jaune could be skittish, but because she had her own nerves to deal with regarding the situation. The fact that all she could do now was fall back on her characteristic confidence and bluster, even though she barely knew how to go about any of it, did little to sooth those nerves.

The two separated again, noses brushing, and their eyes opened to find each other. Yang's mouth quirked into a lopsided grin, and Jaune smothered his own smile as much as he could manage.

Neither said anything at first, so Yang raised an expectant eyebrow at Jaune, the gesture asking the question better than words ever could.

"Tempting as it is, I think we'd both get bored just kissing each other for hours to pass the time." He pointed out, amusement tinging his words.

Yang's brow rose even further, along with another eyeroll, this one clearly visible to Jaune.

She quickly shifted, raising a leg and throwing it over Jaune to straddle his lap, arms moving to rest on his shoulders, crossing each other behind him. She watched her fellow blonde's Adam's apple bob as he swallowed.

"Who said anything about 'just' kissing?" she whispered, her grin taking on new context as she stared him down.

Jaune floundered for a brief time, jaw working up and down as wide blue eyes stared back at dark lilac.

"You're serious?" was what he finally settled on, and Yang knew that wasn't a rejection, just poor Jaune's typical disbelief of this kind of situation kicking in, since he seemed to have absolutely no idea how much the things he'd done for her over the past few weeks meant to her, and how they made her feel.

It was the same problem that Pyrrha had run into, but Yang knew that she wasn't the type to let the chips fall where they may. She wasn't going to wait until one of them was about to die to make her move, she'd seen the effect that had had on Jaune, and she wouldn't wish it on anyone.

So, she repeated her previous work of answering with an action, pulling him into another kiss and rolling her hips forward to push herself up against him, making sure the message was clear. She didn't want to take any chances of Jaune somehow misinterpreting the most obvious signals that had ever been given to a guy in history without her actually stripping naked in the middle of the living space.

Yang really, really hoped that he wasn't that dense.

Ever so slowly, Jaune's hands drifted to her hips as he began to reciprocate, and Yang breathed out a sigh of relief past his lips.

She wasn't sure how fast or slow this was going to go, but when those hands started to drift a little further…downwards, she pulled away and shoved off of his shoulders lightly and backed off the couch to get to her feet, holding out a hand for Jaune.

He looked up at her with an expression she could only describe as awe for less than a second before his hand was in hers, and she tugged him off the couch and began to lead him to her bedroom.

Yang was extremely thankful that they didn't run into anyone on the way there, both because she didn't want to deal with anyone right now and because she was sure being spotted would make Jaune turn all awkward and shy again and then nothing would happen. She dragged him through the doorway of her room and gave a last quick glance both ways down the hall before closing the door behind her, turning to face Jaune.

He was standing in the middle of the room, rubbing at the back of his neck nervously with one hand as he peeked his head her way.

"So uh… how's this gonna go?" he asked in an embarrassed voice. Yang smiled softly, his question putting her oddly more at ease.

Walking up to him, she placed a hand on his face, fingers tracing their way down his jawline as she pressed a chaste kiss on his cheek, "However we want it to." She whispered, kissing him again on the corner of his lips. Then Jaune joined in, arms wrapping around her waist and pulling her closer as he kissed her for real.

It wasn't long before the reality of what was about to happen seemed to hit them both, and the pace picked up in response. Yang steadily pushed Jaune backwards until the backs of his legs were against her bed, and she managed to get his shirt over his head and then dropped to the floor before she all but tackled him onto the sheets.

Jaune let out a surprised yelp as they fell, and once they landed, Yang straddling his waist once again, she belted out a quick laugh at his expense before leaning down and reconnecting their lips, her hair splaying down around them like a shield.

With his shirt off, Yang's hands found their way across the skin of Jaune's chest, enjoying the surprisingly firm muscle she found there that portrayed just how far Jaune had come since he first arrived at Beacon.

With noticeable hesitance, Jaune's fingers started to follow suit. They slipped underneath Yang's tanktop, skimming over her stomach and brushing against the bottom of her ribcage, not daring to go higher, and avoiding her sides as each time they got a little too close to them Yang would release giggles at the tickling, breaking their kisses.

As in most things, Yang's patience ran out far quicker than she'd like, and she started to push the limits that they'd been sitting on, moving to kiss down Jaune's jaw and throat as her right hand brushed across the top of his shorts, before she grabbed and undid his belt in a smooth motion, pulling it right off with her strength and throwing it across the room. The action was accompanied by a sharp intake of breath.

Yang lifted herself up to get a look at Jaune and make sure he was okay, but before she could get a good look, felt his hand grip her waist tightly before she was spun around on to her back, letting out a surprised grunt as she landed, arms instinctively going out to the sides to steady herself on the bed.

Now she was able to see Jaune, and her eyes widened. Gone were the impossibly bright and welcoming blue eyes that she'd become accustomed to seeing whenever they'd look at one another, or even the darker blues of their more intimate moments as of yet. Now, she could barely even see his irises, almost completely replaced by pupils blown out by arousal.

Yang had little time to puzzle out what exactly had set off such a reaction before it was Jaune's turn to push the limits, lips skipping straight to her neck, trailing dangerously towards her collarbone and lower, as his hands slipped beneath her shirt again and made to close the distance, sliding up her stomach and brushing at her breasts, not quite reaching that level of daring yet.

Shocked by the sudden turn, but unwilling to be outmatched, Yang pushed back by continuing her previous work, fingers tugging at the button of his jeans until it came undone, raising a leg to brush against Jaune's groin as she did so, earning a muffled and very welcome growl from him. She smirked devilishly at the reaction and used one hand to grab at Jaune's, nudging him a little further up her body.

His resistance at this point kind of surprised her, until he paused and looked up at her with a raised eyebrow, as if asking whether she was sure. Yang knew rationally that if she said so at any point, they'd stop, but in the moment, the unvoiced question felt a lot like a point of no return. Going from here, there would be no holding back, no tiptoeing to see what happened.

The decision wasn't a hard one for her, no matter what the look truly meant, and she gave him both a nod and a teasing grin as answer.

All resistance faded after that, and as both hands suddenly shot up to palm her and squeeze tentatively, Yang had to bite her lip to prevent any embarrassing noises from slipping out.

She quickly realized that Jaune had caught her, and was grinning boyishly at her as he gave another squeeze. She shot him a glare, before pausing for a second and then grinning wickedly, craning up to kiss him and reaching down with one hand to get in a squeeze of her own, making him try and fail to hold back a groan into her mouth.

Jaune's hands kept exploring and experimenting as Yang started to work his pants down, getting them off his hips with her hands before fumbling to push them down with her feet after they got down past her reach. Luckily Jaune helped out, kicking to get them off and shifting whenever they caught somewhere. She grinned victoriously once they were off completely, earning a quick laugh from Jaune before his head lowered and he surprised her by laying a kiss on the top of one of her breasts. Her prosthetic hand rose automatically and grabbed hold of the hair on the back of his head, pulling him back. He looked up at her as she did so, wincing from her rough hold of him and staring at her in confusion, but all Yang did was let go of his head and shift upright so that she could pull her tanktop over her head, baring her upper body to him.

She quirked an eyebrow expectantly, and it didn't take long for the normally clueless blond to catch on, an arm snaking around her back and pulling her in as he laid a plethora of kisses across her chest, his free hand coming to help him as he dedicated his attention there.

Yang allowed herself some time to enjoy it, her real arm going to his hair this time, massaging his scalp as an apology for her rough treatment of it moments ago. Her breathy sighs and barely audible moans filled the silence between them.

That was, until she felt Jaune's hand leave her breasts, only to slide under her shorts a moment later, causing her brain to short circuit for a moment as her head dropped to Jaune's shoulder and she moaned into his ear.

Spurred on, Jaune quickly managed to slip a finger between her folds, and the breathy "oh shit" Yang blew out as her prosthetic fingers dug into his back was all the reward he could ever ask for. He started to slide it in and out slowly, revelling in the sounds he was pulling out of her.

Yang decided to repay his forwardness, left hand dragging his boxers down and then fumbling blindly until they'd wrapped around his length, pumping him slowly as he slid a second finger into her, making her bite down hard on his shoulder. He threw his head up and groaned at the mix of pain and pleasure, and she gave him a more firm tug, making him twitch in her hand.

Knowing that she was more than ready now, Yang used her free hand to start pulling her own shorts off, with Jaune quickly noticing her action and using both hands to pull them down the length of her legs and off, before repeating the action with her panties.

Now, both of them completely bare to one another, the two's eyes met, and Yang's prosthetic arm came around Jaune's neck, dragging him down to kiss him, their bodies crashing together. Her other hand guided his tip into her, and she nodded into the kiss before he could ask, prompting him to roll his hips forward, sheathing himself in her in one stroke.

She broke from the kiss, wincing and holding back a sharp cry at the stab of pain, but when their eyes met again she nodded for him to continue. "Just, start slow, okay?" she whispered to him, cracking a small smile to put him at ease. Jaune nodded frantically, eyes darting from her face down to where they were joined and back again before he eased his way back carefully, and then pushed in again, this time much slower than the first.

Before long, they'd worked out a rhythm, with Jaune picking up the speed of his strokes slowly as they went. He kissed her hard as he went, swallowing her cries and moans as he pumped into her steadily, one hand cradling her jaw as the other held him up. Yang, for her part, shifted her hips to match his movements, legs wrapping around his back as her fingers held tight onto his back, the nails on her real arm scratching into the skin anytime Jaune thrusted harder than usual.

They didn't last long until the pace shifted to a more frantic speed, leading to the climax. Neither had expected longer from their first time, but as Jaune reached his end, Yang felt herself starting to come undone as well, and urged him to keep up the pace a little longer. He did as asked, one hand brushing over her chest as the other reached down to toy with her lips as he thrusted. His actions did the trick and sent Yang over the edge, as she let out a low moan and threw her head back.

Jaune slid himself out slowly as Yang started to come back down to Remnant, and as their eyes met once again, they both broke into wide smiles, even as they panted breathlessly.

He dropped down onto the bed next to Yang, grinning stupidly at the ceiling as he felt her roll over to rest her head on his shoulder, one of her legs coming to rest over top of his.

"Well, that was a thing." He joked, causing Yang to snort, "That's my line, dork." She chided.

They stayed like that until Jaune felt, to his surprise, something wetting his shoulder, where Yang was laying. He turned to find her lying there still with eyes closed, tears leaking down her face.

"Yang?" he questioned, confused. Her eyes opened slowly and focussed on him, and she offered a watery smile, looking embarrassed. "Sorry," she said, "They're happy tears, I just…" she trailed off, rolling over to bury her head in his shoulder. "I'm just glad there's someone who hasn't left, okay?"

Jaune swallowed thickly, saying nothing. Instead, he wrapped both arms down under Yang's thighs and rolled both of them off the bed, lifting her up to carry her against him. She raised her head to look at him in confusion as he got a more secure grip on her, so he kissed away one of the tears on her cheek and started towards the rooms attached bathroom.

"Come on, let's get you cleaned up, huh?"

She pressed in to grant him a slow kiss, tears still on her face, before hiding her face against his neck again, "Thank you." She mumbled, hugging him tighter.

He managed to press a kiss on her crown, "Of course, Yang."

 **A/N: A fair warning, the next chapter, Chapter 6, will be the final chapter for this Fic.** **Hold on to your hats.**


	6. Chapter 6

With a shudder that was all too familiar by now, Yang woke up.

She sighed before trying to curl up closer to Jaune as she normally did, before her brain caught up to her body and revealed to her that he wasn't in the bed, and she was reaching out at empty air.

That sent her upright, staring at the vacant space next to her. She wasn't about to go totally off the hinges from it, sure, he'd promised not to leave her alone like that again, but the bed looked slept in, and she remembered going to sleep with him by her side, so it wasn't like the time he'd been in the training gym torturing himself. She was well aware that sometimes he'll likely get up to go to the bathroom or something. It happened.

However, as her eyes drifted across the room, she noticed some things missing. Namely, Jaune's armour and his sword. Two things he wouldn't need for a bathroom break, unless he had a fear of toilets that he hadn't told her about.

The more she thought about it, the more it worried her, because even when he went to train that one night, he hadn't been in his armour when she found him. Then she heard some noise from down the hall, and the sound of the front door opening, so Yang quickly got to her feet, grabbing a pair of pants to slip into and then picking her jacket off the ground. She put on her boots with two swift tugs and after a moment's hesitation grabbed Ember Celica off her nightstand and latched it onto her wrist, making sure it was loaded.

Never know what you might run into in the middle of the night, after all.

It took only a few long strides to reach the main room, and from there Yang burst through the front entrance, head on a swivel to catch a glimpse of her Jaune.

Off, nearly out of seeing distance, Yang spotted familiar white armour with a flash of blonde hair above it, cutting down a pathway that lead up to Haven Academy. She frowned hard before breaking into a run to catch up. Why was Jaune going to the Academy? What was he up to?

Whatever it was, Yang decided, it had to be something bad, or stupid, because he'd left in the middle of the night without telling anyone about it. That raised a lot of red flags in her mind.

She sighed as she ran after him, slowing to a more discreet pace once the caught up in order to follow him to his destination. She couldn't help but wonder what was going on with him.

Was there something wrong? Jaune had seemed a little more off the past few days, often she caught him lost in his thoughts and spaced out, but she'd brushed it off at the time, after all, was she really any better off lately?

Evidently, she may have been.

"Why don't you just talk to me." She grumbled, near silent. Even as she said it though, she knew that was hypocritical. She'd very quickly come to realize since arriving in Mistral that she and Jaune were alike in quite a number of ways, including the fact that they would bottle everything up and pretend to be okay so that nobody had to worry about them, because they thought that they needed to deal with everything on their own.

Sometimes she thought that maybe the both of them needed to take a few whacks to the head to get their heads on straight. Maybe tonight that'd be what she had to do for Jaune, whatever he was up to.

It took about ten minutes to reach the grounds of Haven Academy, including a long trek up stone steps that Yang was very surprised to have managed to climb without Jaune realizing he was being followed. She was, for the first time, thankful for Jaune's lack of awareness of his surroundings. Anyone else in their group would have realized before they'd even gotten to the steps at all.

It looked like Jaune was heading to the main entrance, and when he reached it and grabbed at the handles, it didn't budge, obviously locked. For a brief second Yang wondered if he'd actually expected the doors to the school to be open at four in the morning, before deciding he'd just tried it to be sure.

Once he started to pull his sword out, seemingly intent on forcing his way into a Huntsman Academy, Yang cleared her throat behind him, standing only twenty feet from the entrance. She watched as he froze, turning like a guilty child to face her. She crossed her arms and cocked her head to one side, stance making it clear she wanted answers.

The tumble of emotion that crossed Jaune's face told her a few things. He felt guilty over whatever he was doing, as well as worried and angry. It was obviously not something he really wanted to do without question, which made Yang wonder what exactly was making him do it.

Not to mention what it was he was doing in the first place, but considering where he'd been breaking into, Yang had a sickening feeling in her gut that she knew exactly what he was after. She just didn't know why.

"Whatcha up to, Jaune?" she asked, using as casual a tone as she could manage.

He was frowning at her, "Yang, you're not supposed to be here."

She did not like that answer very much.

"Where should I be instead then? Back at the house you left, sleeping in the bed you left, like all the other people you've left?" she watched with some satisfaction as he winced each time she reminded him that he had left. Good, he deserved it.

Her arms went outstretched to her sides in question, "So what's this all about, Jaune? Breaking into the School at night, when we're literally going to be here tomorrow? What's the play?"

He looked away from her, turning more towards the entrance of the Academy, "Just go home, you wouldn't understand."

Yang let out a growl, taking long, slow steps to close the distance between them.

"Try me." She bit out as she neared, causing him to turn her way again at the closeness of her voice. His eyes widened in surprise and he took a step back, which in turn make her stop, only a few feet away.

His hand had gone to the pommel of his sword, the other on his sheath, ready to activate his shield. She could see from this distance that both hands were visibly shaking, and his eyes were wide.

Was… was he afraid of her?

Her anger melted away in an instant at the realization. "Jaune." She tried, far more softly. His hands didn't leave their positions, but his eyes met hers, and she was once more thrown by the fact that his were wet with unshed tears that she hadn't noticed in her anger.

"Jaune?" she repeated, lowering her arms.

"I have to." He said, breaking eye contact, "I can get her back, they'll bring her back. I have to, Yang."

Yang shook her head, eyebrows scrunching up, "What are you talking about? Jaune, whats going on?"

For a while, he said nothing, but Yang waited patiently, waited for Jaune to tell her what had him so torn up inside that he could barely even hold himself together. She didn't think she had ever seen him like this, except for maybe when she found him training to Pyrrha's…. Yang's brain slowed to a halt.

Coincidentally, this happened at the same time that Jaune started speaking.

"I-I've been having dreams, or… or nightmares, whichever, I don't care. I – They said that the Relic Ozpin is hiding can bring her back. That all I have to do is get it for them and they'll bring her back." He couldn't look at her as he spoke, not that she was able to do much more than stare at him with wide eyes and a heartbroken frown as he stumbled through his explanations.

"I'll never get a chance like this Yang, I can't… I need to do this." Now he brought himself to look up at her, tears falling freely. Yang knew that she should feel anger. After all, what he was doing was wrong, the 'they' he kept referring to was almost certainly Salem and her followers, the very people who had killed Pyrrha in the first place. However, looking at the broken expression on Jaune's face, all she could feel was pity.

"Jaune," she said, softly, stepping towards him with slow, measured steps so that he wouldn't feel threatened, "You know that this isn't right." She said, "I know you miss her, but this isn't the way."

Some of his anger broke to the surface, "This is the only way! You think I don't know it's wrong? I hate it!" he shouted at her, "but it's the only way I'm getting her back, giving her another chance!"

Yang shook her head at the exclamations, hands coming up placatingly. She wanted to just reach out and drag him into a hug, but she had a feeling a sudden move like that wouldn't go over well with Jaune in his current state of mind.

"Pyrrha wouldn't want this, Jaune." She pleaded, hoping that the mention would manage to get through to him. It did, but not in the way she had been hoping.

Jaune's sword came out in a swift movement, and he pointed the tip her way, preventing her from taking the last few steps to reach him.

"I don't care, what Pyrrha wanted!" he yelled at her, before continuing in a quiet and bitter tone, "She didn't give me a choice when she threw me in a locker and got herself killed, why should I give her one now?"

That one had Yang beat. No matter how much she wanted, there wasn't any argument she could pit against that, he was right. It didn't make what he was doing the right thing, but she didn't think that there were any words to stop him if he was so far gone he didn't care. However, she'd tried to argue objectively, and by appealing to his love for Pyrrha, whatever she might have been to him, but she hadn't tried arguing for herself, and like anything else, you could always cut deeper when it was personal.

"And do you care what I want?" she asked, throwing him off with her change of tone from soft pleading to borderline anger. He looked at her in almost shocked surprise, and she continued, "Or are you just like everyone else who breaks their promises and leaves?"

Jaune flinched once again, looking away in shame but keeping his sword in her face.

The blade dropped the barest fraction of an inch before he spoke, "This isn't about you, Yang."

At that, Yang couldn't stop an angry sob from bubbling its way up her throat, "Of course it is," she croaked, "If going along with this stupid nonsense actually brought Pyrrha back, you can't be with both of us." She watched his eyes close in resignation, forming a break in the trailing tears on his face. "You won't pick me, and you know it." She took a step away from him, and that seemed to have more of an effect after what she'd just said than any of the words she'd said up to that point.

"I can't give up on her, not now." He whispered. Yang let the first of her own tears fall.

"I know," she replied, deploying her weapons, "but I can't give up on you either."

She moved first, closing the short distance between them and batting his sword out of her path with her Gauntlet. It was quickly followed up as she reached out and grabbed at the top of his chest plate, getting a tight grip and using it to lift him up and spin herself around, throwing Jaune away from the doors of Haven, putting herself between them and him.

He got to his feet slowly, deploying his shield out to his arm once he was up again. His gaze trailed behind her for a moment before he focussed, and with a pained cry he came at her, bringing his sword down in an overhand strike.

Yang used her robotic arm to deflect the blow, bringing her leg forward to kick Jaune back a step so that she could advance on him. Her next move brought her gauntlet forwards as she fired off a shotgun round at him, making him grunt at the impact as he was pushed back another step. She tried to get him again, this time with a shot from her arm barrel, but Jaune brought up his shield to absorb the blow.

His shield came down and he brought his sword around in a wide arc as Yang lunged at him, ducking forwards under the swing and bringing a fist to his side, followed by a second that he caught on his shield, the impact from her robot arm jarring him.

He let his shield arm hang limply for the moment as he heaved a deep sigh, "I don't want to fight you, Yang. Please." He pleaded, looking at her with a begging expression. "Then come home with me, and you won't have to." She offered, a final ultimatum to try and avoid her having to knock him out or disarm him so that she could carry him back there herself and make sure he would be okay.

Instead, Jaune chose against that future. Yang watched as his eyes narrowed, still wet with emotion, and he brought his shield back into ready position. She followed suit, settling into her combat stance.

This time around, Jaune moved first, stabbing forward at her midsection with speed she didn't know he had.

Yang found herself just barely able to sidestep his attack, but he recovered seamlessly, throwing a punch to her side that caught her off guard before he stepped behind her, arms raising. She recognized the move from when they'd trained together, and growled at the thought of him using something like that now, when he was betraying her, betraying them all.

Her elbow shot back as she spun around, ramming his arms aside before she caught him with an uppercut as her spin built momentum. She watched as Jaune went flying backwards, landing roughly on his back, and something in her snapped.

"I trusted you." She shouted, "I trusted you to be there for me, like I was for you. To take care of me like I wanted to take care of you! I thought that Arcs kept their word, Jaune?"

"Yang-" he coughed, pushing himself up, but she wasn't done yet. She stepped up to him, bringing a boot down hard on his face to knock him back down to the ground. White hot pain and anger ran through her body as she did so, both directed towards Jaune and herself. The sensation only made it harder to ignore the lack of feeling in her right arm.

"No, you don't get to make excuses!" she spat, reaching down and grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, lifting him up enough to throw him into the wall of the school. "You promised you wouldn't leave me! Was that just empty words? Was I just the stand in for you to toss aside once you had Pyrrha back?" she had stalked her way over and slammed him against the wall again with both hands. "Did any of what we had even mean anything to you?" she asked with a broken cry, slamming him again, not noticing his aura flicker at the blow, "Did I mean anything to you?"

Yang let go of him and took a step back, watching with crimson red eyes as he slumped to the ground, groaning in pain. She could feel sympathy trying to make its way out of her gut, but it only served to renew her anger.

"Get up." She spat, "If you're going to start this fight, you better be willing to finish it."

Whatever else Yang might have had to say about Jaune then, she couldn't deny that he didn't back down from challenges like that. He managed to pull himself to his feet, pushing up against the wall to do so. She glared, trying to ignore the fresh tears on his face.

To Jaune's credit, he managed to anticipate her sudden attack, bringing his shield up to block her first punch before he pushed off from the wall to force her back and give himself some breathing room.

He was heaving deep breaths, but brought his sword and shield up into a defensive position.

"Yang, I-" she cut him off and attacked again, forcing him to move as her robotic fist put a dent in the wall behind him, and using his shield to block a shot at his retreating form. Yang went at him again without hesitation, but as she closed in on him, Jaune stopped running and brought his shield to bear, bracing his shoulder against it to slam it into her head. The blow knocked Yang flat to the ground, cracking the cobblestone beneath her, but she managed to fire off her gauntlet as Jaune made contact. She didn't see the result, but heard Jaune's cry of pain to confirm she'd hit him.

Shaking her head in hopes that it would make the ringing in her ears stop, Yang let out a groan as she pushed herself off the ground.

Jaune was a few feet away, hunched over behind his shield gasping for breath while he leaned on his sword. He looked up at her with wide blue eyes, pleading, "Please." He gasped.

Her fists clenched. Who was he to ask anything of her now, like this? Acting like he hadn't done anything wrong. She growled, it was time to finish this. He was already having trouble breathing, a one two to his jaw and chest would be enough to have him unconscious, or at the very least unable to fight back any longer.

Then they could fix this, somehow.

She shot forwards, and Jaune's eyes widened further at the action. He tried to bring his shield into her path, but she batted it aside and out of his grasp before he could manage, bringing her robot fist to bear on his jaw before she drove her other hand into his gut, firing off her gauntlet for good measure.

However, the usual sound of her shotgun rounds was accompanied by a sickening squelching sound, and a splatter of liquid covering her hand and hitting her arm and torso.

She looked down in horror, the red in her eyes fading fast, replaced by the red of the blood that covered her shaking fist.

"Oh gods!" she sobbed, looking up to lock gazes with pained blue eyes. "Your aura, what-" he let out a watery cough, "Broke it on your last hit, guess you didn't notice." His tone was somehow dry, despite everything.

"Okay, okay, we can fix this." She declared desperately, trying to stem the flow of blood from his riddled torso. "C'mon, c'mon" she mumbled, tearing lengths of fabric from her pants to try and use as gauze. Her frantic movements were stopped when Jaune's hands reached out to grab her own and hold them still. "Yang." He sighed, making her shake her head.

"No no no no no, I can fix this Jaune, I did this, I have to fix it!"

He let his fingers intertwine with hers, keeping them gripped tightly, "This is my own fault, not yours Yang." He whispered. She could see in his face that he was resigned to this, and turned away, unable to stand the sight. "I can't lose you." She croaked, leaning down to bury her tears in his shoulder. He let go of her hands, letting her grip him tightly as he put his arms around her in an embrace.

"Nope," he said, pulling back and placing his arms on her shoulders to push her back so he could face her properly, she watched as he gave her a sad, bloodstained smile before placing a hand on her chest, just over her heart, "You'll always have plenty of me right there," he said, "and nobody can take that away from you, no matter what they do."

Her tears dropped onto his cheeks, prompting him to reach up and brush his thumbs across her face, wiping away the streams that flowed there. "That isn't fair." She whined. The childish tone made a laugh bubble up in Jaune's chest, and he grinned at her for a moment, "Life isn't fair." He reminded her, as if either of them had ever needed more evidence of the fact after the fall of Beacon.

"I'm sorry." He said, finally able to get the words out with the fight over, "I don't know what was wrong with me, what I was trying to do." He said, before he looked down at his wounds. "I'm glad you stopped me." He croaked, "I just wish I'd been able to stop myself."

Yang leaned in, lacking words, and kissed him desperately, hands clenched in his sweater. Jaune took the chance to run his fingers through her hair and hold her tightly.

"Please, don't leave me." She begged quietly after they broke apart. He tightened his hold further, closing his eyes.

"I'll stay as long as I can, I promise."

.

.

 **AN:** **To start this one off, I'd like to let everyone know that this was where this Fic was going to end since the moment it became more than a Oneshot. Started on a car ride with my Beta and a joking "I could just kill them." came out. It very quickly became a serious "I could just kill them." (Yea, Yang was originally going to be implied to die as well, but this was pre-V5 ending and the plan didn't work with canon so it was scrapped.)**

 **Was definitely a very interesting and challenging chapter to write, as well as build up to with subtle hints that things weren't going to end on a high note in a few previous chapters. Hopefully it turned out well. I pretty much exclusively listened to "To Build a Home" by the Cinematic Orchestra while writing this chapter, and let me tell you that made it a lot more painful. Totally worth it, but damn.**

 **I will be changing the Friendship genre tag on this to Tragedy at some point, once the initial wave of viewers passes, so as not to spoil anything.**

 **...Sorry not sorry.**


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